W.VA.  OFFICIAL: FEDERAL DATA ON PAINKILLER ADDICTION NOT ACCURATE

CHARLESTON - State officials say data in a federal report showing only 34 painkiller addicts being treated in West Virginia are not accurate.

The report released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration listed the 34 addicts under the "other opiates" category - which excludes OxyContin, Vicodin and Lortab - for 2002.

But vague reporting requirements led 81 percent of West Virginia addicts in treatment centers to be undefined.

It's not possible to determine how many of those 5,315 people should have shown up in the pain pill statistics, said Merritt Moore, the state's drug treatment coordinator.

"We certainly have more than 34," he said.

West Virginia's numbers exclude thousands of prescription drug addicts enrolled in private methadone clinics, Moore said.  The state will begin regulating those clinics next year.

According to 2003 numbers kept by Moore's office, combined with estimates the methadone industry submitted to lawmakers, West Virginia's concentration of painkiller addicts in treatment would be about 20 percent higher than in Maine, which had the heaviest concentration of treated narcotic painkiller abusers in the federal report.

A private company has been hired to keep track of which drugs are responsible for what treatment, Moore said.